Early Life

Lorely Burt went to University College, Swansea, getting an BSc in Economics. She went onto get an MBA from the Open University.

Employment before Parliament

After graduating in economics, Lorely Burt began her career in the Prison Service as an assistant governor, before working for several national companies in the field of personnel and training. She later set up a training company, worked as a director in the marketing and financial services sector, and moved into part-time consultancy work when she replaced John Windmill, former Liberal leader on Solihull Council, as the prospective Liberal Democrat candidate for Solihull.

Political Career

Lorely's political career began on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, where she served for five years from 1998. She stood for election in Dudley South at the 2001 General Election, where she finished in third place and well behind the winner Ian Pearson. She also stood for the West Midlands region at the 2004 European Parliament election. Lorely controversially left the council following her involvement in the dual voting scandal when it was suggested she had cast an electronic vote for a liberal party colleague, who was not present in the council chamber during a debate.

In the run up to the 2005 general election, Burt campaigned on various local issues affecting Solihull, and succeeded in overturning the large majority held by the Conservative incumbent John Taylor. This was a striking achievement as the Conservatives lost only two other seats to the Liberal Democrats, and they had both been marginal seats for the previous decade. Solihull is a traditionally Conservative constituency (at one point, Taylor's predecessor, Percy Grieve MP, had the largest Tory majority in the UK), and Burt was aided in her victory over Taylor by squeezing the vote of the Labour Party. Her majority over Taylor was just 279 votes, making Solihull an extremely marginal constituency for the next election.

Following her election, Lorely Burt became a Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Northern Ireland and she also served on the Treasury Select Committee. After the election of Sir Menzies Campbell to the leadership of the party, Burt became the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Small Business and Women and Equality. In 2007 she was moved from these jobs to become the spokeswoman for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. In October 2007, she was elected as the party's first female House of Commons Chairman, defeating John Thurso and Andrew George in a poll of MPs.